The Level of Digital Competence in Education Professionals: The Case of Spanish Physical Education Teachers

ARTÍCULO DE INVESTIGACIÓN RESEARCH REPORT http://dx.doi.org/10.14482/zp.33.371.334 The Level of Digital Competence in Education Professionals: The Case of Spanish Physical Education Teachers El nivel de competencia digital en profesionales de la educación: El caso de los educadores físicos españoles Jesús López Belmonte Universidad Internacional de Valencia (España) Email: . Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0823-3370 Santiago Pozo Sánchez Universidad de Granada (España). Email: . Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8125-4990 Arturo Fuentes Cabrera Universidad de Granada (España). Email: . Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1970-4895 Nieves Domínguez Campoy Universidad de Granada (España). Email: . * Este estudio se enmarca en el proyecto CONICYT PIA CIE 160009. AB ST RACT The advances made in society in technology have caused the education sector to be in a process of digitalization. That is why teachers who practice the profession today require digital skills to carry out teaching and learning processes in innovative environments, appropriate to the reality and demands of the students. This study aims to know the degree of digital competence of teachers of the Physical Education area. For its scope, a descriptive and correlational research design has been established by means of a quantitative method. A sample of 236 teachers from the Spanish geography who teach the subject of Physical Education, selected probabilistically by strata, was chosen. As a data collection instrument, a validated and reliable questionnaire was used. The results obtained reflect that this professional group has technological skills of considerable range in each of the areas that articulate the digital teaching competence. Likewise, it is postulated that the scope of such competence depends on the academic degree, the educational stage and the type of centre where they perform their duties. Palabras clave: ICT, digital competence, educational innovation, teacher training. R ESUME N Los avances producidos en la sociedad en materia tecnológica han ocasionado que el ámbito educativo se encuentre en un proceso de digitalización. Es por ello que los docentes que ejercen la profesión hoy en día requieren de competencias digitales para efectuar los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje en entornos innovadores, adecuados a la realidad y exigencias de los discentes. El estudio que se presenta toma por objetivo conocer el grado de competencia digital del profesorado de la especialidad de Educación Física. Para su alcance se ha establecido un diseño de investigación descriptivo y correlacional por medio de un método cuantitativo. Se escogió una muestra de 236 docentes de la geografía española que imparten la asignatura de Educación Física, seleccionados probabilísticamente por estratos. Como instrumento de recogida de datos se empleó un cuestionario validado y de fiabilidad pertinente. Los resultados obtenidos reflejan que este colectivo profesional dispone de destrezas tecnológicas de rango considerable en cada una de las áreas que articulan la competencia digital docente. Asimismo, se postula que el alcance de tal competencia depende de la titulación académica, la etapa educativa y el tipo de centro donde desarrollan su cometido. Keywords: TIC, Competencia digital, innovación educativa, formación del profesorado. Como citar este artículo: Pozo Sánchez, S., Fuentes Cabrera, A., Domínguez Campoy, N., & Belmonte, J. (2020). The level of digital competence in education professionals: The case of Spanish physical education teachers Zona Proxima, 33, 146-165. Recibido: 26 de agosto de 2019 Aprobado: 17 de diciembre de 2019 148 T h e leve l o f d i g i t a l co m p e te n ce i n e d ucati o n p ro fe ssi o nal s: T h e c as e o f S pa n i sh p hysi c a l e d u cati o n tea ch e rs J e s ús Ló p ez B e l m o n te , S a n t i a g o Pozo Sán ch ez , Ar t uro Fu e n te s Ca b re ra , N i eve s Do m í n g uez Cam p oy Introducción Nowadays, it is undeniable that technology and technological tools occupy great part of people’s life. As a result, the field of education is one of the most developed in relation to that, especially, in the processes of teaching and learning in the educational act itself (Rodríguez, Cáceres and Alonso, 2018), allowing the deployment of new pedagogical models and assets to reach efficacy in the students’ learning (Camerino and Buscà, 2011). All this process subjected to technology, fostered by the on-going emergence of technologies associated with information and communication, has caused a change and a constant progress, not only in the search of information but also in other aspects such as personal relationships, problem-solving or the creation of contents of different nature (Arzola, Loya and González, 2017). It is for this reason that Physical Education, discipline that is currently having an increasing scientific relevance (Llopis, 2016), has to be constantly updated in order to equate the technological progress of education paradigms in society (Prat and Camerino, 2012). The massive use of technological devices has led to a native digital literacy of the current generations and a constant learning of the rest of the population. There is an exaggerated growing number of tools, resources and applications, being the digital natives the ones who have known how to adapt with the greatest simplicity to this revolution of technological nature, which comes marked by the progress in these years (Area, 2015). For all this, ICT tools are causing a revolution at all levels in the educational field, accomplishing a fleeting but necessary education of methodologies and education paradigms, and they are also adapting to the needs of students who occupy the classrooms in education centres at this technological stage. (Viñals and Cuenca, 2016). On the basis of the current educational legislation, Organic Law 8/2013, 9th December, which establishes the improvement of the quality of education (henceforth LOMCE), it is stated that these ICTs must be present in the different subjects of the curriculum which play a part in the official curricula. Moreover, they are an indispensable part of a positive development in the teaching process, used by teachers, and in the learning process, used properly by students. In the light of the above considerations, ICTs have produced a pedagogical change that can lead to a type of learning, which is in general deeper and interactive, encouraging true technological experiences thanks to technology, as recognized experts in this field believe, for instance, Cabero and Barroso (2018). n º 33 (2020) págs. 146-165 issN 2145-9444 (electrónica) 149 T h e leve l o f d i g i t a l co m p e te n ce i n e d ucati o n p ro fe ssi o nal s: T h e c as e o f S pa n i sh p hysi c a l e d u cati o n tea ch e rs J e s ús Ló p ez B e l m o n te , S a n t i a g o Pozo Sán ch ez , Ar t uro Fu e n te s Ca b re ra , N i eve s Do m í n g uez Cam p oy The emergence of these IC (...truncated)